Win7 hotspot hackers kick-funded - now they're network bondage pros

Double your broadband for only $70*

Having raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter, the Windows network bonding application has gone professional, with a professional price which will only appeal to those desperate to combine internet connections.

Connectify raised the cash on the back of a pretty video and prototype code, which the company started selling to beta testers at $40 a pop, but since August it has spent the Kickstarter money creating a new interface, then creating a new interface again, and testing the technology as widely as possible in preparation for today's launch.

The concept of Connectify Dispatch is to split socket connections between different network interfaces and thus avoid the necessity for the aggregating server used by traditional bonding techniques. It can't split individual TCP connections, but with http using multiple connections these days, the increase in experienced speed can be marked, assuming one has more than one connection to play with.

Connectify reckons you'll be queuing up to utilise Wi-Fi and wired connections at the same time, and boost Wi-Fi with a 4G dongle, but we can't help wondering if it's not something of a niche market. Of course that might explain the $70 price tag - they can't be sure of selling in large volumes.

If one needs to boost connection speed on a Windows computer (XP, Vista, 7 & 8, other platforms promised soon) then Connectify is certainly the cheapest and easiest way to do that, but like many Kickstarter projects, what sounds like a nice idea doesn't always make it as a commercial product - even when its got a hundred grand's worth of interface. ®